Wed: 5×10’/1′ rest

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I had a hole in my schedule so I squeezed in an hour in the gym.  I wasn’t sure how well it go, so I started slow and sped up in each interval.

The targets were:

  1. 2:08
  2. 2:06
  3. 2:04
  4. 2:02
  5. 2:00

Actual results were:

5x10

First interval was interrupted about 2 minutes in.  I was rowing on slides and it was horrible.  I think the shock cords are going, or the slides were out of alignment or something.  I couldn’t get a smooth stroke in to save my life.  I jumped off the erg, yanked it off the slides and finished the session that way.

Heart rate data was wonky in the first interval, but calmed down after that.

Screen Shot 2015-09-09 at 6.01.09 PM

I liked to see the plateau at 151 for a 2:00 pace.  Maybe my aerobic fitness isn’t as bad as I fear.

Tomorrow:  Back on the training plan…

Short rest intervals:  4 x (5 x 2′ on / 30″ paddle) / 2′ rest

Target r26 and 2:15 pace

Sick.

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What a disaster.  I got back from Taiwan on Friday night, went for a row on Saturday which was mostly delightful, except for it being a bit choppy in the basin.

Then things went downhill.  Because of jetlag, I did not sleep at all on Saturday night.  Not a wink.  It didn’t help that I needed to get up at 4:30am to catch a plane to St. Louis, but nothing I could do would help me fall asleep.  I finally gave up at 3:30, took a shower and headed off to the airport.

I had a nice time in St. Louis.  My daughter is living out there and we hadn’t had a chance to see her since the spring.  There was no time for any training.  My wife and I jetted back home on Monday morning.  By late afternoon, I was down with a stomach bug.

I was basically in bed from 4pm Monday until 2pm Tuesday, and very wobbly for the rest of the day.  I decided to sleep instead of training this morning.  I still feel under the weather, but I might try a short erg session later today, and try to get back on the water tomorrow.

So, this represents a 3 day break in training, and a lot more days off over the past two weeks than normal, and hardly any rowing.  I’m not sure how far back this puts me in terms of race prep, but I’m sure it won’t be pretty.

I was wondering how much effect it would have so I did a little digging.  On the Rowing Illustrated boards, I found a discussion about the topic.  This was a report out of how a high school team detrained over christmas break.  The thread included a reference to a review article on detraining.

This said that the main effect over the first week is loss of blood volume…

With detraining of endurance-trained athletes blood volume is reduced by 5-12% within the first two days. This reduction in blood volume is the primary reason for the observed rapid decline in cardiovascular function. As a direct result there is a decrease in cardiac output (amount of blood pumped per minute) and stroke volume (amount of blood pumped per beat) with an attendant increase in heart rate during sub maximal exercise – consistent with the equation

This doesn’t completely address how long it takes to restore blood volume, but the rule of thumb that I’ve read is 2x the number of days off.  So, the bottom line is that I should be back on track in a week or so.

Saturday: 2 hours, 22.5km Steady State

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Scouting the HOCR course again.  Beautiful weather.  High 70s, wind 8-10mph from the SE, which was a cross head wind heading down river and a cross tail wind heading up river.  I launched about 1pm and there was an astounding amount of traffic.  Kayak, SUPs, Sailboats, Motorboats.  The only people not on the river were rowers.  The whole 2 hours I was out, I saw 3 scullers, one of whom nearly ran me down.

The plan for today:

  1. Steady state r18 to r22
  2. Concentrate of technique since I’ve been out of the boat for 8 days
  3. No pace target
  4. Try to keep HR in the high UT1 zone

Screen Shot 2015-09-05 at 9.13.04 PM Screen Shot 2015-09-05 at 9.12.50 PM

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_7980_|_40:00_|_2:30.4_|_798___|_20.0_|_10.0_|_154___|_headwind
08000_|_0100_|_00:39_|_3:15.5_|_010___|_15.3_|_10.0_|_137___|_water break
08100_|_2580_|_13:49_|_2:40.6_|_272___|_19.7_|_09.5_|_150___|_headwind choppy
10680_|_3920_|_21:50_|_2:47.2_|_428___|_19.6_|_09.2_|_134___|_very choppy
14600_|_4940_|_24:11_|_2:26.8_|_553___|_22.9_|_08.9_|_153___|_HOCR course
19540_|_2960_|_15:59_|_2:42.0_|_330___|_20.6_|_09.0_|_144___|_sbr sru

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks

19420_|_39:50_|_2:34.2_|_2051___|_20.5_|_09.5_|_149___|_Main set
00100_|_00:39_|_3:15.5_|_010___|_15.3_|_10.0_|_137___|_rest meters
02960_|_15:59_|_2:42.0_|_330___|_20.6_|_09.0_|_144___|_cool down
22480_|_56:28_|_2:35.4_|_2391___|_20.5_|_09.4_|_148___|_Total

The conditions were lovely on the upper 8K of the river and deplorable on the last 3K.  Almost unrowable.  There was a lot of chop from the wind, plus wakes from power boats and especially the “duck boats”, which are amphibious craft that are used for tours of Boston.  You go riding through the historic streets, and then plunge into the Charles and churn up the river to continue the tour.

I launched from the public ramp by CRI, and headed downriver, into a bit of a head wind.  I just plodded along covering the full HOCR course, and then stopped for a water break.  Then I continued downriver through the basin to the Museum of Science.  This was a big mistake.  The basin was close to unrowable with a confused chop and lots of sailboat and powerboat traffic.  At one point I just gave up and waited for the water to simmer down a little bit.  The water improved considerably when I was about 500m downstream from the start of the HOCR course.  From there to the end the only thing I had to worry about was traffic.  Kayaks seemed to have a death wish.  I would look and it would seem like I was going to avoid them, then look again and they had turned into my course.  One of the only single I saw today I saw when he came around a corner on a collision course with me on my side of the river.  Mind you, this was a point on the river that was nearly 400m wide.  We clashed blades and exchanged pleasantries.

I tried to row nice and light and let the rate drift up as I continued up the HOCR course, trying to cement in my head how far apart all the landmarks are.  Once I reached the finish of the course, I had a bit more water, and then did the last 3K up river alternating between 500m of square blades and 500m of slow roll ups.  I was trying and not succeeding to keep my blades off the water.

Note to self.  Next time row the HOCR course twice instead of going into the basin!

“Rowing Faster” <– Great book. Here are some thoughts on Chapter 6

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I’m on a business trip and found myself without internet and had some time to kill, so I was rereading a terrific book.

Rowing Faster, by Volker Nolte

Chapter 6 in the book is by Ed McNeely who has been associated with the Canadian Rowing team and is titled “Rowing Physiology”. This single chapter is worth the price of the book in my opinion.

He provides references for the split of aerobic vs anaerobic in 1K, 2K and 5K races.

– 1k about 50/50
– 2k about 80/20 (could be up to 30%)
– 5k about 90/10

He includes the definitions and explains aerobic threshold, anaerobic threshold, and VO2Max. Then things get very interesting.

He describes a diagnostic test to measure anaerobic fitness. I think I will need to give this a try sometime when there isn’t enough suffering in my life. It is a modification of the wingate test which is usually done on a stationary bike. Here’s the procedure.
– You need a way to record the erg stroke by stroke. I think you can do this with ergdata. I know you can with rowpro. Worst case, you can set up a video camera to watch the PM.
– 10 minute warmup
– set up the PM for 1 minute work, and 1 minute rest.
– row the first minute as you did your warmup, nice and easy
– during the rest, grab a sip of water and continue to paddle lightly until there are 3-5 seconds left in the rest.
– Then crank it up. The objective is to pull as many watts as possible in every single stroke. You can use any rate as long as you are rowing full slide. Do not pace yourself. This is an all out test.

What will happen is you will get about 15 seconds in and you will begin to fade. Then you will fade some more. Then eventually, it’s all over and you can puke in the bucket you stationed next to the erg. From the stroke by stroke data you can get:
1. Peak power: Your highest wattage any any single stroke
2. Avg power for 60 seconds
3. Anaerobic Alactic Critical duration: This is how long it takes to drop off 10% from peak power.
4. Anaerobic lactic critical duration: This is how long it takes to drop off to 35% below peak power.
5. Drop off: percentage difference from peak power to lowest power

The test is most useful when used as an indicator of progress. So, a training program would use this test every 4 weeks or so to see if anaerobic performance was getting better. But just as a diagnostic, here’s what the book says.

– Peak power: There’s a table of benchmarks for men and women. For a heavyweight 52 year old rower like me, peak power should be 850-1050W
– Avg power: 680-820
– AACD: should be longer than 20 sec
– ALCD: Should be longer than 40 sec
– Drop off: Should be less than 35%

If you miss on these parameters, it might be a good idea to include more peak power and short interval work in your routines if you are focusing on 1K and 2K races.

But wait, there’s more! Then he goes on to his suggestions for the best balance of fitness variables for rowing. The variables he is talking about are:
– VO2Max
– Aerobic Threshold
– Anaerobic Threshold
– Peak Power

He suggests the following tests to determine the wattage associated with these thresholds.
– VO2Max: The dreaded 2km test
– Anaerobic threshold: 6km test
– aerobic threshold: 75 minute test
– peak power: 30 second sprint

Based on his measurements of the perfect specimens available to him, he asserts that the ideal ratios of these different paramaters are:

VO2Max to peak power: 40 to 45%
Anaerobic Threshold to VO2Max: 80 to 85%
Aerobic Threshold to VO2Max: 65 to 70%

So, he suggests that at the beginning of a training block, you do these tests over a week or so, with adequate rest between them, and then use your results to figure out if you should prioritize aerobic, anaerobic or power training. Which I think is pretty cool.

He goes on to talk about training volume, a subject that we’ve touched on in a number of threads. He is definitely in the “miles make champions” camp.

Anyway, I think that I will probably do the suite of tests at the end of the head racing season to help me figure out a training plan for indoor racing. I highly recommend the book, especially to OTW rowers. Only about a third of the book would be useful to indoor rowers, but it is a well researched and concise description of strategies to train for the unique demands of racing 2k.

More of the same: 3 x 30′ fitness center Tri-athlon

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A little cooler in the fitness center, but still very moist.  I started out thinking I would do another 2 hours, but I got bored and stopped after 90 minutes.

Plan:

  1. 30′ Incline Treadmill (15% grade was the max setting, and around 5.5km/h fast walking pace)
  2. 30′ Elliptical (two hill profile)
  3. 30′ recumbent stationary bike (easy interval profile)

Screen Shot 2015-09-03 at 7.44.14 AM

Today is my last day in Taiwan.  I take a cab to the airport at 7:30.  I think I will try to do another 90 minutes before I check out.  This week won’t have helped my rowing at all, but I hope it will help a bit with my endurance.

The trip home will take about 24 hours or so, arriving Friday night.  I hope to do a long row on the HOCR course on Saturday.

Wednesday: The Formosa sweatfest – 2 hours of aerobic tedium

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I have figured it out.  They seem to turn the AC on in the fitness center around 7am.  Before that, it is warm and incredibly steamy.  After they turn it on, it seems to take about 30 minutes to make much headway in reducing the humidity.  Since I hit the gym around 5:15AM, I did most of the workout in the fetid, steamy soup.

Plan:

  1. 60′ Elliptical
  2. 60′ Stationary bike
  3. HR cap at 155

Screen Shot 2015-09-02 at 7.44.39 AM

Reasonably happy with that.  It was a looong, boring session, but I think I got the intensity about right.  When I finished on the bike, I discovered I had mad a huge sweat puddle under it almost 2 meters in diameter.  It took two towels to clean it all up.  I wanted to get a picture of it, but the lighting was wrong to really see the extent of the flood.

Tomorrow:  4×30′ on four different machines.  HR cap at 155.

Doing the Hsinchu Hshuffle: 90′ of aerobic tedium

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After Saturday’s disaster, I got on a plane Sunday morning and arrived at my hotel in Hsinchu 27 hours after I left my house in Massachusetts.  I managed to get some sleep on the flight across the pacific, but I felt a bit worn down.

I took an Ambien and got a good solid 6 hours of sleep, and woke up a minute before my alarm this morning.  I put on my workout clothes and headed down to the fitness center.  It was warm and very humid.  I was in for a sweat fest

Plan:

  1. 30′ bike
  2. 30′ treadmill
  3. 30′ elliptical

On the bike I setup for a “two hill” profile.  That was hard at the end and boring in the middle, but it elicited the desired HR response.  I moved over to an elliptical and tried in vain to get it set up.  The touch screen was very reluctant to acknowledge my touches.  I finally gave up on that and went over to the recumbent bikes and started up there.  Then I saw a treadmill open up over my shoulder and I lunged for it.  The treadmill had the same touch screen issues, but I was finally able to get it to a 1% grade and 5 mph for a gentle 30′ jog.  No issues there.

After that I went over and selected a different elliptical which also had a wonky touch screen, but I was finally able to get it set to the right level and time and set off on a 30 minute tour around the world.  This was basically a few minute long intervals with a few smaller “hills” and some flats.  Easy peasy and darn boring.

But the intent was to work on aerobic base, and this did the trick.  I ended up sweating so much that my shoes were making that squish-sqish noise while I did my ellipitcal thing.  When I got back to my room, I noticed that I had lines of suds trailing down my legs where the sweat had gotten stirred in with some residual laundry detergent.  Did I mention it was humid?

Screen Shot 2015-09-01 at 1.25.09 PM

Tomorrow:  I think I will do a 2 x 60′  (bike and elliptical).  More aerobic base work.

Frustrated: Blown 30 minute Threshold workout on the erg

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Argghhhhh.  What a frustrating end to the week.  This week has been very up and down.  Monday and Tuesday were lovely workouts.  I was forced to miss wednesday because I needed to prep for a big meetig at work.  Then a great workout on Thursday.  Friday was another bust.  I needed to be in Rhode Island for a meeting at 7am, which blew up my chance for a morning row, and then the traffic was so heavy getting from RI back to work that I missed the chance to erg at lunch time.  Then I spent most of the afternoon getting “constructive feedback” on some projects that are behind schedule and over budget.  I left work and then sat in traffic again for another couple of hours.  By the time I got home, I was a wreck.

I had planned to get up extra early this morning to meet some folks for a friendly 5K on Lake Quinsigamond. This is a group from another club on the lake that train together for head races and they invited me to join in.  But by the time I got to bed at midnight, I just couldn’t face another short nights sleep and cancelled out.  The fact that Sunday morning, I need to get up early and fly to Taiwan was also in the back of my head.

I got up around 8 am and I figure I would do some erg penance.  A 30 minute threshold workout seemed to fit pretty well.

Plan

  1. 2K WU
  2. 30 minute threshold.  Target pace 1:52 (to get just over 8K).  Target rate 26.
  3. 2K cool down

It all went just fine for about 10 minutes.  But I started too fast, averaging about 1:50.5 for the first 10 minutes and my HR was skyrocketing.  I tried to pull back to a 1:55, but I had dug myself too deep of a hole and kept digging when the warning signs started to appear.  I ended up with 4 HDs, and a much reduced pace for the last two thirds of the piece.

It was awful.

Warmup.  Nice and controlled.  burst of 10, burst of 20, burst of 20.

Screen Shot 2015-08-29 at 6.10.32 PM

Workout Summary – Aug 29, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_02000_|_07:45.4_|_01:56.3_|_222.2_|_22.8_|_139.8_|_ 68.0% _|_11.3_|_09.7

Screen Shot 2015-08-29 at 6.08.40 PM Screen Shot 2015-08-29 at 6.08.55 PM

Workout Summary – Aug 29, 2015
–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_07712_|_30:00.0_|_01:56.7_|_220.2_|_24.6_|_167.8_|_ 87.8% _|_10.5_|_09.0
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_01360_|_05:00.0_|_01:50.3_|_260.8_|_25.6_|_152.5_|_ 77.0% _|_10.6_|_10.2
02_|_01356_|_05:00.0_|_01:50.6_|_258.6_|_25.6_|_171.9_|_ 90.7% _|_10.6_|_10.1
03_|_01268_|_05:00.0_|_01:58.3_|_211.2_|_24.2_|_170.6_|_ 89.8% _|_10.5_|_08.7
04_|_01203_|_05:00.0_|_02:04.7_|_180.5_|_23.0_|_164.0_|_ 85.1% _|_10.5_|_07.8
05_|_01278_|_05:00.0_|_01:57.3_|_216.7_|_24.4_|_174.7_|_ 92.7% _|_10.5_|_08.9
06_|_01247_|_05:00.0_|_02:00.2_|_201.3_|_24.8_|_173.2_|_ 91.6% _|_10.1_|_08.1

Cool down – 500 @ 2:05/2:10/2:20/2:25 (aiming at exactly 9:00)

Screen Shot 2015-08-29 at 6.11.29 PM

–_|_Total_|_-Total-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg-_|_Avg-_|_-Avg-_|_–Avg–_|_-Avg_|_-Avg
–_|_Dist-_|_-Time–_|_-Pace–_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_-HR–_|_-%HRR–_|_-DPS_|_-SPI
–_|_02000_|_09:00.2_|_02:15.1_|_142.1_|_18.5_|_151.8_|_ 76.4% _|_12.0_|_07.7
Workout Details
#-_|_SDist_|_-Split-_|_-SPace-_|_Watts_|_SPM-_|_AvgHR_|_Avg%HRR_|_DPS-_|_-SPI

01_|_00500_|_02:04.5_|_02:04.5_|_181.3_|_21.2_|_146.1_|_ 72.4% _|_11.4_|_08.6
02_|_00500_|_02:08.8_|_02:08.8_|_163.9_|_20.0_|_159.4_|_ 81.8% _|_11.6_|_08.2
03_|_00500_|_02:19.6_|_02:19.6_|_128.8_|_17.6_|_154.6_|_ 78.5% _|_12.2_|_07.3
04_|_00500_|_02:27.4_|_02:27.4_|_109.3_|_15.9_|_146.5_|_ 72.7% _|_12.8_|_06.9

So, there it is.  I take off tomorrow morning.  I will be working on keeping my aerobic base and then getting back on the water next weekend.  A very disappointing end to the week.

Thursday: 4 x ( 3 x 3′ / 1′ rest) / 2′ rest – another good one

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Yesterday, work intruded on rowing.  I had a big meeting at 10AM and I was working on preparing for it from 6AM onward.  I finished my last meeting of the day at about 6:30PM and scooted home.  Shit happens.

Today, the weather was glorious!  Sunny, cool, around 60F.  Light wind from the NNE about 5 mph.  This was shifty and flukey, but I only noticed it as a head wind on parts of the upriver segments.  But the water was flat and I was really happy to be out on the river.

Plan:

  1. 3′ on / 1′ off
  2. 2′ minute rests when I needed to spin the boat, so basically 4 sets of 3 reps
  3. rate: r26 or higher
  4. pace: 2:15 or faster, hopefully faster.

Screen Shot 2015-08-27 at 3.44.24 PM Screen Shot 2015-08-27 at 3.44.01 PM

Start_|_Dist_|_Split_|_Pace_|_Strks__|_Rate_|_DPS_|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
00020_|_1060_|_05:50_|_2:45.1_|_104___|_17.8_|_10.2_|_118___|_w
01080_|_0700_|_03:00_|_2:08.6_|_077___|_25.7_|_09.1_|_153___|_m
01780_|_0180_|_01:00_|_2:46.9_|_021___|_21.0_|_08.6_|_147___|_r
01960_|_0700_|_02:57_|_2:06.4_|_079___|_26.8_|_08.9_|_159___|_m
02660_|_0160_|_00:58_|_3:01.3_|_020___|_20.7_|_08.0_|_152___|_r
02820_|_0720_|_03:02_|_2:06.6_|_079___|_26.0_|_09.1_|_160___|_m
03540_|_0160_|_01:00_|_3:07.8_|_019___|_19.0_|_08.4_|_146___|_r
03700_|_0700_|_03:01_|_2:09.0_|_079___|_26.2_|_08.9_|_161___|_m
04400_|_0160_|_01:00_|_3:05.9_|_021___|_21.2_|_07.6_|_155___|_r
04560_|_0700_|_03:00_|_2:08.5_|_081___|_27.0_|_08.6_|_164___|_m
05260_|_0160_|_01:00_|_3:06.3_|_021___|_21.1_|_07.6_|_161___|_r
05420_|_0700_|_02:59_|_2:08.1_|_078___|_26.1_|_09.0_|_168___|_m
06120_|_0160_|_01:02_|_3:14.7_|_018___|_17.3_|_08.9_|_157___|_r
06280_|_0700_|_03:01_|_2:09.1_|_079___|_26.2_|_08.9_|_164___|_m
06980_|_0140_|_00:56_|_3:19.3_|_019___|_20.4_|_07.4_|_162___|_r
07120_|_0700_|_03:00_|_2:08.4_|_081___|_27.0_|_08.6_|_168___|_m
07820_|_0160_|_01:01_|_3:10.3_|_022___|_21.7_|_07.3_|_165___|_r
07980_|_0700_|_02:59_|_2:08.1_|_078___|_26.1_|_09.0_|_170___|_m
08680_|_0160_|_01:00_|_3:08.8_|_020___|_19.9_|_08.0_|_163___|_r
08840_|_0680_|_02:58_|_2:11.0_|_077___|_25.9_|_08.8_|_168___|_m
09520_|_0160_|_01:01_|_3:11.9_|_022___|_21.5_|_07.3_|_165___|_r
09680_|_0700_|_03:03_|_2:10.4_|_080___|_26.3_|_08.8_|_170___|_m
10380_|_0140_|_00:57_|_3:23.2_|_020___|_21.1_|_07.0_|_167___|_r
10520_|_0720_|_03:03_|_2:07.4_|_082___|_26.8_|_08.8_|_172___|_m
11240_|_3240_|_18:25_|_2:50.5_|_355___|_19.3_|_09.1_|_139___|_c

Dist__|_Time__|_Pace___|_Strks_|_SPM__|_DPS__|_AvgHR_|_Remarks
01060_|_05:50_|_2:45.1_|_104___|_17.8_|_10.2_|_118___|_warmup
08420_|_36:03_|_2:08.5_|_950___|_26.3_|_08.9_|_165___|_Main set
01740_|_10:55_|_3:08.2_|_223___|_20.4_|_07.8_|_158___|_rest meters
03240_|_18:25_|_2:50.5_|_355___|_19.3_|_09.1_|_139___|_cool down
14460_|_11:13_|_2:27.8_|_1632___|_22.9_|_08.9_|_153___|_Total

BOOM!  Another really good workout.  It was hard, but I was able to focus on technique at 26 spm and hold 2:10 pretty routinely.  Each of the reps started to bite around halfway through, but I didn’t need to pull back on any of them.

Tomorrow:  Another day of work related craziness.  I need to be in Rhode Island at 7am for a meeting, and then drive to the office for meetings in the afternoon.  I figure I might be able to squeeze in an erg session, but I’m not sure.  I need some steady state meters!